The Crosstown finally opened. Was it worth the wait?

The Eglinton Crosstown was supposed to open in 2020. It opened on Sunday, February 8, 2026, in what the TTC called an introductory service period, which is the phrase for running trains while you find out whether they keep running.

What it is: 19 kilometres along Eglinton from Kennedy in Scarborough to Mount Dennis, 25 stations and stops, more than ten kilometres of it underground. The province’s number is 123,000 riders a weekday and nearly an hour saved end to end. What it cost in credibility is harder to count: years of missed dates, a builder and Metrolinx suing each other, and an opening announced only when it was weeks away.

For anyone along Eglinton the review is simple and personal: is the trip better than the bus was. For everyone else the question is what the Crosstown taught the region about building transit, and whether the Ontario Line, whose own date has slid into the 2030s, learned it.

Sources: Railway Age, the Crosstown opens February 8 · ReNew Canada, Ontario marks the opening · blogTO, the opening date confirmed